Mixing and pouring cement mixtures for cement construction at job sites involves significant manual labor. Aspects of the mixing and pouring work however may be assisted by machinery and equipment. This machinery and equipment includes motorized mixing vessels, cement mixer trucks that carry a supply of cement mixture to a job site, and motorized bins that move the cement mixture from the truck or mixing vessel to the work location for concrete construction at the job site. Other equipment such as shovels, straightedges, trowels, and floats, are used during the manual labor involved in placing and finishing the wet concrete discharged from the cement chute.
Cement mixers receive cement, sand, water, and other components for mixing to form a cementatious mixture. Cement mixer trucks receive and hold the cementatious mixture for delivery from a cement plant, for example, to a job site for cement construction. The cement mixer includes a discharge port that selectively allows the cementatious mixture to flow into the cement chute. The cement chute attaches to the discharge end of the cement mixer truck as an elongated trough or channel along which the cementatious mixture flows to a selected work location preferably near the end of the chute to minimize the labor in placing the mixture. Cement chutes typically have one or more extendable members, such as a trough member that hingedly attaches to another trough member and unfolds to form the elongated cement chute or telescopically extendable members. A connector connects between a rotatable shaft or pole and the cement chute as a pivot mount, so that the cement chute may be swung in a horizontal arc to position the end of the chute selectively at the work location at the job site for cement construction. The cement received in the cement chute flows downwardly and off the end of the cement chute.
Some cement mixers have mechanisms for moving the cement chute in a horizontal and a vertical direction. However, with many cement mixers, such as cement mixer trucks, the horizontal arcuate pivoting or swinging movement is accomplished by workers who manually and laboriously push or pull on the extended cement chute. A pin positioned in a selected hole in a pivot plate acts as a brake to keep the cement chute from swinging during discharge as may occur on unleveled uneven ground that is not uncommon at construction job sites. Manual movement requires the work personnel to be in close proximity to the cement chute. The cementatious mixture typically is heavy and the cement chute may be difficult to swing and properly position for discharge of the flowing cementatious mixture at a work location.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved aftermarket or OEM mover apparatus that readily installs to cement mixers for mechanically pivoting the cement chute in a limited arc for positioning the cement chute for discharge of the flowing cementatious mixture at a selected location while braking the cement chute from movement on uneven ground. It is to such that the present invention is directed.